I don't know what disturbs me more

1) That Keith Richards allegedly snorted his father with some cocaine, or...

2) ...that the fact that Keef snorted his father doesn't shock me in any way. It's about as surprising as a Sooner football player admitting to taking money he didn't earn, and acting incredulous at the insinuation that he did something wrong...

This Keith Richards story a good example of what I will call the Cherry Tree Principle. We are all familiar with the story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree:

When George was about six years old, he was made the wealthy master of a hatchet of which, like most little boys, he was extremely fond. He went about chopping everything that came his way.

One day, as he wandered about the garden amusing himself by hacking his mother's pea sticks, he found a beautiful, young English cherry tree, of which his father was most proud. He tried the edge of his hatchet on the trunk of the tree and barked it so that it died.

Some time after this, his father discovered what had happened to his favorite tree. He came into the house in great anger, and demanded to know who the mischievous person was who had cut away the bark. Nobody could tell him anything about it.

Just then George, with his little hatchet, came into the room.

"George,'' said his father, "do you know who has killed my beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden? I would not have taken five guineas for it!''

This was a hard question to answer, and for a moment George was staggered by it, but quickly recovering himself he cried:

"I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it with my little hatchet.''

The anger died out of his father's face, and taking the boy tenderly in his arms, he said:

"My son, that you should not be afraid to tell the truth is more to me than a thousand trees! Yes - though they were blossomed with silver and had leaves of the purest gold!'' (ML Weems)

Though the story is probably apocryphal, the point of the story is this: it was so typical of George Washington to act in such a way that people could believe that it happened. If I told you that I drove into my garage with a bike locked to the top of my car a couple of weeks ago, knocking off said bike and bending my roof (and I did), I'm sure you would believe me, because it's typical of me to do such things. Same goes for an Oklahoma football player taking money in violation of NCAA rules- it's happened so often over the last 40 years in the land of Barry Switzer that it's not that surprising.

Therefore, whether or not Keith Richards really did snort his father is irrelevant. The fact that a reasonable person could think him capable of it tells you a lot about who he is.